Pascale Marthine Tayou (Yaoundé, 1967) is a Cameroonian artist.
Pascale Marthine Tayou’s artistic career began around 1994 in Cameroon. In addition to being showcased in the cultural centers of Yaoundé and Douala, his work has been supported by the Cameroonian art association and center, Doual’art, which has featured him in group exhibitions since 1994 and dedicated a solo exhibition to him in 1997. In 2007, the artist also participated in SUD-Salon Urbain de Douala with a performance, promoted by Doual’art.
The Parisian magazine Revue Noire has also contributed to the artist’s career by supporting his work. Tayou’s work is appreciated and supported by numerous curators. Among them, Okwui Enwezor presented him at the second Johannesburg Biennale in 1997, at Documenta in 2002, and in the exhibitions Mirror’s Edge (1999-2001) and The Short Century (2000-2001). Curator Simon Njami invited Pascale Marthine Tayou to the major exhibition Africa Remix, organized at the Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf, the Hayward Gallery in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Mori Museum in Tokyo, and the Johannesburg National Gallery (2004-2006).
In 1995, his work was exhibited at the first Kwangju Biennale directed by Yongwoo Lee, and his participation in international art biennales has only intensified over time. In 1996, the Dakar Biennale invited him to participate in individual exhibitions, and the following year he exhibited at the second edition of the Kwangju Biennale. He was invited to the Venice Biennale in 2005 and 2009, the Sydney Biennale in 1998, the Havana Biennale in 1997 and 2006, the Liverpool Biennale in 1999, the Taipei Biennale in 2000, the São Paulo Biennale in 2002, the African Photography Encounters in Bamako in 2005, the Lyon Biennale in 2000 and 2005, the Istanbul Biennale in 2003, the Berlin Biennale in 2001, and Documenta in Kassel in 2002. He also participated in the Santa Fe Biennale in 1997, the Kleinsplastick Triennale in Stuttgart in 1998, the Münster Sculpture Biennale in 2003, and the Hasselt Triennale in 2005.
In 2001, he participated in the sixth edition of the event Arte all’Arte organized by the Associazione Arte Continua, and from there, he began working with Galleria Continua. In 2018, he became the fourth “artistic sponsor” of A.S. Velasca, an artistic-sporting club founded by the artist Wolfgang Natlacen.